I decided it was time we created our own range of designer T-Shirts, so I’m proud to announce the launch of ‘Insults‘ By Funhouse Graphics.
As the name suggests, everything we have created for this new online shop is insulting, that is, it’s a small compendium of quotes designed and laid out on T-Shirts, mousemats, mugs etc and utilises some of the greatest putdowns of all time.
Queen Karaoke is responsible of course, and those of you who follow her Twitter account will already know the savagery of her wit. But there are also famous quotes from Groucho Marx, Oscar Wilde and others, and a section devoted to Shakespeare’s greatest insults.
I’ve created lots of flash animations over the years, many of them self-contained websites. But the trend seems to be away from these all-in sites and more towards using flash banners or just bits and pieces of flash sprinkled through a website. I think this has happened partly because flash was always absolutely hopeless for search engine optimisation – the designer always had to put in all kinds of alternate content specifically for search engines – and partly because there is hope that there may be a newer, easier technology on the horizon.
Whatever happens, animation on the web is here to stay and if there’s a better way than flash of incorporating moving elements I’ll be working with it soon. In the meantime, flash is still very much alive and well.
I could show you lots of examples of flash banners that I’ve made but they’re a bit meaningless outwith the context of the websites they belong in. Instead here is my favourite piece which is a little front page insert I created for Internet Karaoke, the online karaoke player. Queen Karaoke is the site’s ‘virtual hostess’ and the purpose of the animation was simply to tell customers they had to purchase credits before singing along. However, beyond the simple instruction to ‘Get Credits’ I decided we could have some fun.
I'm Greg Moodie, a freelance graphic designer based just outside Edinburgh in Scotland. I've been trading as Funhouse Graphics since 1998 and specialise in 2d & 3d animation with a heavy dash of quirky.
